The Best of Friends
by Arctic Banana
Summary: Ever since Sideswipe and Jolt met on Earth, they knew they'd be the best of friends...


_This idea's been floating in my mind for a while now...since I watched Revenge of the Fallen, anyway. Siders and Jolt didn't really have much of a role in the movie, which made me sad. They could have potentially been awesome characters if they'd just gave them a chance to develop. Same with Arcee. And Sideways. And Grindor. And hell, pretty much any robot that wasn't in the first movie. Hell, pretty much half the robots from the first movie too! I mean Ironhide and Ratchet had what, two lines each?_

_So anyway, I thought Jolt and Sideswipe could have been friends. I mean anything is possible considering we don't have much of a personality from either to go on..._

* * *

Somehow, the minute Sideswipe met this younger mech on that planet called Earth, he knew they'd be the best of friends. He didn't know if it was their similar troublemaking personalities…or perhaps it was the fact that he had a sense of humor, unlike most of the mechs that resided on Earth with them…but whatever the reason, he'd never forget the minute the kid first walked up to him and said, "Hi! I'm Jolt! Want to see me try to shove ten boxes of Twinkies in my mouth at once?" (He'd apparently taken to Earth food real well…) Another thing he'd never forget was how proud Jolt was of himself afterwards when he only choked twice. It was nice having a friend, though, especially on such a strange planet as this with few of their population around to keep him company.

Especially after what had happened to his brother.

"You have a brother?" Jolt said in surprise when Sideswipe first told him. They were walking down the hall of the base the humans had been nice enough to set up for them.

"Yeah. He was my twin, actually. His name was Sunstreaker. But sadly, we've been separated," Sideswipe sighed.

"Oh. I'm sorry. What happened to him?" Jolt inquired.

"Well, he's on this planet actually. We came here together."

Jolt glanced over at him briefly. "Really? So where is he now?"

"Well…" Sideswipe took him by the hand and led him to one of the offices, opening the door with great difficulty and causing several papers propped against it to fall. Jolt was stunned when he saw the mountains of paperwork in the room that seemed to go on for miles. Many of the stacks hit the ceiling or got extremely close to it. Was there a desk under that? He couldn't tell… "We've all been…er…_slightly_ behind in our paperwork…"

"I'm crying right now to imagine the entire rainforest that died for all this paperwork…" Jolt said, feeling sorry for all the animals whose homes were now sitting in this ocean, gathering dust.

"We sent Sunstreaker in there for a pencil one day. He hasn't come back out since," Sideswipe shook his head. "Mom's gonna be pissed…"

Friends as they were, even the best of friends fight sometimes. Jolt sometimes had problems with Sideswipe's arrogant, show-offy nature for example, and Sideswipe in turn thought his new friend was a little _too _concerned about the environment…such as that time the Autobots were in a hurry, responding to a supposed Decepticon sighting. Somehow Jolt had gotten into the lead. No one thought anything of it until he hit the brakes suddenly and sat there blocking the narrow road, the forest on either side making it impossible for the others to get past him.

The other Autobots began to honk and scream at him to hurry it up and move. "Come on, by the time we get there, the 'Con could have slagged half the town! Move!" Ironhide screamed at him.

"Move yo ass, bitch!" Skids snapped, wondering what was taking so long.

"Did you forget to plug yourself into an outlet and recharge again?! Because I swear, if your battery is dead…!" Ratchet began threatening him.

"Oh come on, what are you…" Arcee used her smaller physique to her advantage and weaved around the other Autobots so she could find out the cause of Jolt's inactivity. "Jolt! Are you serious?!"

"Snails are people too!" Jolt countered, patiently waiting for the tiny garden snail to cross the road before driving on.

"Wait! We're stopped for a _snail?!_" Optimus called from the back.

"Jolt, I understand and respect the fact that you love preserving nature, but seriously…you need to haul your ass!" Sideswipe pointed out.

"He's almost a quarter of the way across the road! He'll get there shortly!" Jolt protested their rushing him.

"Jolt, the 'Cons don't wait for gastropods!" Sideswipe said in annoyance. "Now move!"

"Hey, how would you like it if you were trying to cross the road and someone drove over you?! This poor little snail wouldn't stand a chance under our tires! I'm not moving until he makes it to the other side!" Jolt snapped back. By now there was more honking than New York City at rush hour.

"Jolt, _I'm _gonna drive over _you_ if you don't floor it in fifteen seconds!" Sideswipe threatened, revving his engine.

All the noise and the vibrations on the road frightened the little snail, causing it to pull its moist, squishy body back into its shell and sit there until it deemed itself safe. "It's okay little guy. Take your time," Jolt reassured it, causing everyone behind him to groan.

Even though most in the base thought it was a good idea that the two were able to hang out with each other, there was a downside to letting two well-known troublemakers constantly hang around with each other. Case in point…

"Hey, Optimus! How ya doin'?" Sideswipe asked through his comlink, trying to be friendly. "What do you mean, why am I calling you? I just wanted to see how you were doing. Oh…I see…sorry to bother you, but can I ask a quick question before you get back to work? What do you think of an indoor pool? No, huh? Are you sure? I think it would be good for exercise…oh…okay. Well, thanks anyway. See you when you get back." Sideswipe turned off his comlink and looked back at Jolt nervously. "It was a no-go. Which means we _have _to fix those pipes we broke before Prime gets back."

Jolt was hyperventilating from the thought of all the fish that were dying because of all this water that was being wasted. He barely noticed Arcee standing atop a table that floated by like a boat. Skids and Mudflap were both clinging to a ceiling light to avoid getting wet and Bumblebee waded through the waist-deep water, shaking his head and holding Sam and Mikaela so they didn't drown in the chaos.

"Someone find something to get rid of some of this water!" Sideswipe requested.

"Ooh! I know!" Skids said, letting go of the light and landing with a splash. He was almost completely submerged by the water. He ran to the medbay and returned with a bag, promptly emptying its contents into the water.

"Yeah, Skids. We're going to soak up all this water with cotton balls," Sideswipe said sarcastically.

"The bag says "fluffy and absorbent"!" Skids pointed out.

"Jolt, whatever you do, don't send an electric current through the water, or you'll kill us all…or at least wait until only Skids and Mudflap are in the water…" Sam requested.

"Hey, man! Dat was cold!" Mudflap complained from where he clung to the light.

"Hey Jolt, just think…the more time you just stand there in shock instead of helping fix the pipes, the more tadpoles lie on the shore, shriveling up in the hot sun, gasping out their last breath, wondering why they had to die…" Sideswipe pointed out dramatically.

The mental image caused Jolt to come out of his stupor and quickly rush to help him. "For the tadpoles!" he screamed, rushing to put the pipes back in place. They both heard a click, followed by a sudden decrease in the water level, and looked behind them to find that Ironhide and Ratchet were home, both of them staring in shock at all the water that rushed out the front door they just opened.

Skids floated out with the current. "Goodbye, world!" he waved as he floated past Ironhide and Ratchet.

The two exchanged glances before looking back at the mess, assessing the flood damage. Bumblebee, Sam, Mikaela, Arcee, and Mudflap all pointed at Jolt and Sideswipe, announcing, "They did it." Jolt accidentally dropped the pipe he was trying to put back in place and Sideswipe stuck his finger in a hole to stop the leak.

"We can explain…" Sideswipe said nervously.

And yet the best thing of all with really good friends was half the time the explanation could be summed up with a simple...

"This is one of those _'What the hell are we doing?'_ kind of moments, isn't it Sideswipe?" Jolt asked.

"Yeah, Jolt…I believe it is…" Sideswipe nodded, shying away from the angry looks from the two older mechs.

* * *

_This could have been longer. But I ran out of ideas. So we end it there. I'm off to listen to some Cyclefly, and then I'm going to bed._


End file.
